TWIST 2025, PART 2 NEW BOOTHS OF INTERESTS

TWIST 2025, PART 2 NEW BOOTHS OF INTERESTS

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PART 2 Twist 2025 new booths of interests

Today Lets head back to Twist

selfie takeing spot in front of sheep on a rocket9.1)  photo selfie setup just outside the arena with a sheep on a rocket and snowball bush.

This year there was more yarn for sale at boots, but I did find a few venders selling fiber, mostly combed top, and one selling felt (which you saw last time). There were a few more informational booths that I want to point out and we already saw some of the local guild /group demos.

OVWSG Demo at twist, spinner showing fiber to 3 wimon who are watching9.2) a quick peek at the ongoing Ottawa guild demo in hall between the arena and the gym.

Lets take a quick look in the arena, there were booths around the outside and a row placed back to back down the center. The isle were wide and there were a few benches to stop and rest. (as demonstrated by Glenn last post, but most other bench users were not a somnolent as he was).

vew of arina, and two shots of booths one with yarn and one with cones of weaving yarn10.1 3 shots, one of the arena at opening, woman looking at weaving yarn, mohair top

buttons, knitting yarn and knited samples10.2) buttons, knitting yarn and samples

Christine’s booth with bats of mixed fiber and art yarn. She is spinning on a magacraft wheel.10.3) Christine’s booth with bats of mixed fiber and art yarn. She is spinning on a Majacraft wheel.

This is a booth,  A Lair Artifacts, I kept going back to. I have shopped here over a number of years. The died top is available in a number of different fibers/breeds. There are some super wash merino, regular merino, and many other breeds with greater luster as well as a few fiber blends. (you can see a list of what fibers she is dyeing with here; https://www.alairartifacts.com/en/general-5 ).  I keep being drawn to Masham, it’s a long fiber but it has such a captivating luster and is much stronger than the soft limpy-ness of merino. I keep telling myself, I am going to felt with this so if the staple is too long for what I want to use it for I can use scissors to make it shorter (which will offend spinners!)

combed top of various breeds and needle felting with dried flowers.11.1) combed top of various breeds and needle felting with dried flowers.

I am sure you spotted examples of felting in this booth too. When you look closely at the ghosts, which are very small, you will notice they have fabulous drapieness to their sheets.

ghost with dry flowers in belljar. 11.2) ghost with dry flowers in belljar.

looking up breed information tag has breed and micron count11.3)  looking up breed information tag has breed and micron count and some times staple length.

one of the shoppers asked about one of the breeds she didn’t recognize  and the vendor was able to explain about the sheep and she showed her more information from the handy little book “The Field Guide to Fleece: 100 Sheep Breeds & How to Use Their Fibers” By Deborah Robson and Carol Ekarius. (sometimes all the time i have spent in the local guild library comes in handy!)

There was a pebble mat of felted round rocks as well as an very well done mushroom!11.4) There was a pebble mat of felted round rocks as well as an very well done mushroom! (one in needle felt, one crochet and i think the last one is sewn)

I was impressed with the top but check out the filly side11.5) I was impressed with the top but check out the frilly side, very nice line work and lovely subtle blending on the stem

I got distracted and had a chat about the shallow working depth of crown needles. I hope I didn’t overwhelm or bore her too much!  The pebble rug, which was quite large, and covered the table, looked like the mushroom  was growing from between the pebbles.

Since we have had a quick look around at the vendors in the arena let’s go over to the gym and see one of the booths I wanted to show you over there. On our way there lets first take a quick look at some of the other vendors.

ecoprinting12.1) Eco printing

Cheviot combed Top hand died12.2) Cheviot Top hand died

a booth with brooms12.3) a booth with brooms

Linin tea towels12.4) Linin tea towels in basket

samples of knitting with yarn from this booth12.5) samples of knitting with yarn from this booth

now lets stop and take a look at the first of the booths in this hall i thought might catch your interest.

La laine : matériau d’avenir | The Future is Wool (Concordia University)

the Future of Wool booth, this is a group we saw  was it last year in the outside tent? This year they have moved inside and are creating a collaborative embroidery project.  Twist posted that this is a “new 3-year community stitch project, exploring cross-cultural histories and planet-healing futures of our favourite fibre, local/regional/Canadian wool! Together, we’ll create a multi-panel ‘Bayeux’-style tapestry about our wool”.

Their own description about themselves is :

“The Future is Wool uses wool and craft to propose the questions: of Does the pleasure of handwork and the chance to work in community with other makers bring us comfort in this time of [post?] pandemic anxiety? Does wool’s biodegradability ease our ecological grief as our planet faces what seems like catastrophic climate change? This project is ongoing”. https://re-imagine.ca/the-future-is-wool/

13.1-13.4 “the Future of Wool” booth close up of image they are making, pictures of people embroidering,

They had a range of ages helping with their embroidered tapestry and all seemed to be enjoying themselves.

13.5) a large age range participated in the embroidery.13.5) a large age range participated in the embroidery.

Each time a went past this booth, there were new people helping by work on part of it. the promotion of wool is always a good thing for felters and spinners!

Just around the corner was another booth that cot my attention (ok, so I may be easily distracted but did you see what was on the table?)

inuit mitts and hat14.1) hat and mitts on table

Since we are now on page 11 as I am typing this up, I should probably stop and show you the rest of this and the neighbouring booth, and a few of the outdoor vendors and the guest sheep next post, part 3. In the mean time I will let you drool at those mitts as I did. Do you think that is seal and fox fur? I would never have cold fingers again!!!

i hope you are enjoying the vicarious shopping and have room for a bit more next post. until then have fun and keep felting, or maybe washing he last couple fleeces before the snow arrives again!

Sven Came Home

Sven Came Home

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We got the call the other day that our new (baby) ram is ready to come home. We decided to call him Sven. He has grown since April. He now weighs 70 pounds(32 kg).

Here he is with his fellow lambs. He is the one in the back with the white on top of his head. He knows something is up.

HI is still a baby, so he was easily rounded up and carried to the dog crate in the back of the van. He was not impressed with his travel accommodation.

Here he is looking back as we drove away. It made me feel sad.

But that didn’t last long, and he was looking out the front window. He didn’t complain much at all.

And now he is in his new temporary home. He will stay here for a few weeks to settle in, and then we will put him next to the Storm, our current ram, and the ladies to get acquainted.

Here he is listening to Storm and the ladies yell greetings from the other side of the barn. This was a couple of weeks ago. He is settling in nicely and no longer thinks my son is going to kill him when he brings him his grain. He will even let him pat him if there is grain on the offering.

Lastly, a couple of close-ups of his wool. I hope to make something nice out of it next year. The sun shot shows you the lovely colour.

Exciting News – New Online Classes!

Exciting News – New Online Classes!

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We have two new online classes available, one for newer felt makers and one for more experienced felt makers.

The first online class, Wet Felting a Vessel Using a Simple Resist, is taught by Helene and will teach newer feltmakers how to use a resist. If you know how to wet felt a flat piece of felt but want to move on to making 3D felt objects, this class is for you. The class is online and can be started and accessed at any time. You will have continual access so that you can keep coming back to the class videos and PDF’s at any time as you progress in your felt making. Students will also have access to a private Facebook group to show their work and ask questions of Helene.

You will learn about making resists, what materials to use, how to layout your wool, prefelting and felting over the resist as well as fulling and shaping your vessel. Helene will also show you how to progress from a simple shape to other options only limited by your imagination. Click here for more information and to register now.

The other new online class which will start October 17, is 3D Multi-Part Resist by Ann M. This class is designed for intermediate felt makers who have made vessels or other items over a resist. If you have seen more complex vessels and wondered how they were made, this class will teach you how to create a “book” resist and create a multi-part vessel.  Ann will be posting more about her class soon. If you’re interested, you can fill out our contact us form to get on the email list to notify you when registration opens.

If you are just starting on your felting journey, our Wet Felting for Beginners online class is always available. If you take this class first, you will be ready for Helene’s vessel class and then move on to Ann’s more complex vessel class or Helene’s hanging spiral class.

Mitred squares detail view
Memories Sweater (Work in progress)

Memories Sweater (Work in progress)

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This blog talks about my attempts to knit the Memories Sweater pattern by Sally Melville.  I will start by sharing the project photos of Sally’s inspiring sweater.  As you can see, this is a neat pattern and a great way to use up random bits of sock yarn.

My first attempt with the pattern was in May 2022.  I dug out some sock yarn and started.  After 5 weeks, this is all the progress I managed.  I had a few hiccups… one was that the various sock yarns had slightly different gauges.  And the bigger problem was the square itself.  The mitred square in the pattern had a spine going down the middle of the square.  I found making squares in this style to be frustrating.  And so the project got put into a bag on a time out.  Three years later it has not been retrieved.

Modular knitting panel
First attempt (June 2022)

Now we advance to June 2025.  My husband I and were going on a long car trip to visit family.  I wanted to find a project that would be good trip knitting and also that would not take too much space.  I began to wonder if maybe I should attempt the Memories Sweater again.

To try and avoid the gauge problem, I decided to use a single brand of sock yarn.  I had this selection of Patons Stretch Socks, which is a fingering yarn with lots of cotton (41% Cotton, 39% Wool, 13% Nylon, 7% Other).  I thought it would be a good match for a summer top like this.

Patons Stretch Socks
Patons Stretch Socks

Next I decided to look around for another mitred square pattern to use as a substitute.  I found the Knitted Patchwork Recipe by Martine Ellis and gave it a try.  I was very happy with my first square.

Knitted patchwork recipe and first square
Knitted patchwork recipe and first square

And in late June I started knitting in earnest.  I knit steadily from June 30th to mid August.

Along the way I began to worry that I would run out of yarn.  I posted an ISO (In Search Of) post on Ravelry and a few people came to my aid and sold me spare balls from their stash.  These new colours got added into the panels.

 

Eventually I had 2 completed panels and then I began to add edging on 3 sides as the pattern instructed.

And here is a view of the panels with edging complete.

Completed panels (edging complete)
Completed panels (edging complete)

I then tried to figure out what to do next.  I read and re-read the pattern for the shoulder/sleeve section and was stumped.  In the original sweater the designer had more squares in her panels than I had in mine.  So after searching through pattern notes and looking online I resorted to emailing the designer for help.  Luckily Sally Melville kindly answered my questions and has provided some clarifications to help me move forward.  However, I have not yet had the time to devote to implementing her directions and starting the shoulder section of the sweater.  But I am hoping to get to that soon.  I look forward to sharing my finished sweater in a future blog post.

 

 

 

 

A Summer Round Up

A Summer Round Up

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As I sit down to begin this post the sky has darkened and the rain (fingers crossed) is about to fall, heaven knows we need it, but what a fabulous summer it’s been so far here in sunny Lincolnshire! I don’t know about you but I tend to not do too much in the way of creative stuff through July and August as there are too many distractions and this year the intense heat has made me feel very lazy so lots of time spent relaxing, reading and watching creative videos. Consequently I’ve now got a table of projects I want to finish and a head full of others I want to start!

A couple of projects I did do this summer are two wet felted vessels. The first one, inspired by a shrivelled seed pod, was made at the İFA Region 8’s Summer School in Arnesby near Leicester. Our region encompasses several counties and is so spread out we struggle to get our İFA members to attend. On the other hand we have a regular group of creative ‘non members’ in the locality who are more than welcome to come along to our events, and thankfully they do! It was a busy and fun two days…..

My seed pod began life as five leaf book resist measuring 27cm x 36cm and various colours of Merino and Corriedale fibres.

It’s final shape was formed after lots of pushing and pulling and using strong clips to get it to stay as I wanted it.I decided to keep the opening as tiny as possible and, as a consequence, the resist had to be ripped to shreds in order to remove it! I’m wondering about adding some hand embroidery here and there in the shape of circles using a dull gold thread, I think it’s lacking something but is that it?

Photo of a wet felted 3D multicoloured seed pod with a shrivelled appearance.
Photo of a wet felted 3D multicoloured seed pod with a shrivelled appearance.

The second vessel was started last Friday when I was working at the Usher Gallery in Lincoln. I’d seen a post somewhere mentioning they were having their second Artist Studio Day and inviting local artists to apply. If successful it meant I would get the use of a table in their ground floor workspace and get to spend the day with four other artists. It sounded like a great opportunity and I’m so glad I applied! Only four artists turned up on the day and unfortunately one of those had to leave early. My other two companions were both painters and it was nice to get to know a bit about them and watch them work. We had a few members of the public come in to see what we were doing but for most of the time it was very quiet which allowed us to focus on what we were doing.

Knowing I wouldn’t get finished, but would need to get my vessel to a stable state before leaving the gallery, meant I needed to do a bit of prep the day before. So I decided on a size, cut my circular resist and made this piece of prefelt combining threads, fabrics and fibres to cut up and use as surface decoration.

Prefelt for surface decoration
By the time we had to leave I had a stable prefelt that looked like a pizza and could be folded into my bag….it was too large to carry it flat!
The finished rock inspired vessel

One of the Summer pieces I’ve yet to finish is an Iris which I started at the end of July. This is going to be for the Lincolnshire Textile Groups Bountiful Botanicals competition taking place in October. I’m creating it from hand painted Tyvek fabric and wire and the flower will be approximately 30cm dia by 115cm tall. I’ve just got the leaves to do now and then I’ve got the perfect spot for it in my lounge when it’s finished. I don’t want to reveal too much before the competition so this is a sneak preview for now…..

 Finally I’ll leave you with some images from this year’s fabulous Asylum Steampunk Festival. As ever there were some outstanding costumes, some very strange costumes and some that looked like they’d missed the theme altogether but it really didn’t matter! There were steampunk enthusiasts represented from all over the UK and from various European countries. One lady said she had come over from Hong Kong especially to join in the festival! The atmosphere is the friendliest you could imagine and the whole Cathedral Quarter was buzzing!

True to form I didn’t make time to create a costume but this year I did dig out a long skirt and a waistcoat as a (very) token gesture in order to wear my oversized steampunk dragonfly brooch.

 

Snape Textile Group exhibition – prep

Snape Textile Group exhibition – prep

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This is just a very simple post as I frantically prepare for our Snape Textile Group’s exhibition of work, showcasing our work from a year’s worth of interesting monthly workshops. These are given mostly by external tutors, but we usually have two ‘in house’ lead activities and an annual challenge. I must admit I haven’t completed the latter….I simply can’t get my head around altered books, no matter how I try!

I have enjoyed many of the workshops with the keen intention of finishing them at home, but life has a habit of dictating otherwise and then suddenly I am up to my elbows in the next workshop. So, anyone remembering the subject of two previous posts relating to Decovil, one of this year’s workshops….NO, I haven’t finished it and….YES, I can hear you nattering at me from here! One day I will surprise you all 😁

Our hardworking group leader always plans our workshops 12+ months ahead and once booked, sends out our group programme complete with the websites for all our tutors. Over the last few years, I have taken this opportunity to see what our tutors are creating, what their tastes are and what we might be doing. The result of my homework and exploring ‘G’ online (thank you to all the authors of the info/pix I have used for inspiration) is that I usually go to the workshop armed with lots of inspiration photos….it helps me consolidate my thoughts.

Herewith the projects (in no particular order) I have finally managed to complete and will enter into our 2025 exhibition –

Paper Collage with Sharron Bates

From her work online I knew it was to be a ‘whimsical’ theme on houses, many of which were seaside based. Exploring, I found many other whimsical houses to whet my appetite.

That set me off thinking about my past and very happy times living by the sea (I now live smack bang in the middle between coasts!), resulting in a collection of photo views of my most memorable locations.

The bottom set are of Langstone Harbour (South England). The Royal Oak pub (extreme bottom right) was a favourite late teenage venue, sitting on the footpath dangling our legs over the edge with the tide coming in, particularly when cars parked on the sand were being slowly swallowed by the rising water. The publican would always be shouting for the owner/s to retrieve their car/s. It was extremely entertaining watching the shenanigans as ‘unfamiliar’ motorists tried to rescue their cars particularly those who didn’t want to get their shoes or trousers wet!!! It was hysterical at times and great entertainment. Sadly (er-hmm) they have now got barriers to stop folk parking on the sand – spoilsports! But I digress….

Top is a view across the water to Bosham, further east along the south coast (Bosham is pronounced Boz-am – we always took great delight in listening if folk were local as not far away there is a Cosham pronounced Cosh-um!). Please forgive another digression again related to water…. On the seaward side there is a lower tarmac road which you can access from either end of the village. However, when the tide is in, the road is totally covered. You are probably ahead of me here….we have seen many folk removing socks and shoes and rolling up their trousers to avoid the inevitable knee-deep soaking – sometimes folk just won’t listen to the locals 🤣

Back to the workshop….

Our tutor provided us with ample supplies and examples of how to achieve her houses which we would work onto a page/s of an old book.

There was an amazing collection of houses at the end of the day.

As always, I did follow all the instructions but with my twist on Bosham as my subject! I was lucky as my chosen book had fold out pages allowing me to create the wider landscape format. It does however remain the only picture in what should be another altered book!

 

Cyanotype explorations with Kim Tillyer

I have not experimented with cyanotype before, in fact very few of our group had, so for me this was to be quite an exciting day of exploration. Our tutor had certainly gone above and beyond in terms of preparation, having pre-painted about six A5 sheets of artist water colour paper of various thicknesses, plus some fabric for everyone, before we then painted our own remaining sheets of paper and fabric.

I was so wrapped up in the process I didn’t take any photos at all.

For those who are new to cyanotype – it is a light sensitive solution made by combining two chemicals (ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide) with water. From the moment it is mixed, and the yellow liquid is applied to the surface it is reacting, so it needs to be placed in total darkness to dry. Then the fun begins….

Objects – vegetation, hard objects (keys, stencils, plastic etc) – are placed on the dry painted surface and to assist holding the objects in position, a glass or Perspex sheet is placed over the top. More can be added on top of this sheet, but it won’t be quite so clearly defined. The whole package is taken into the sun and the magic happens….the yellow surface becomes blue with white impressions of the objects. Once this has happened the painted sheet must be washed thoroughly.

It is a quick reaction, only 2-4 mins, and a very addictive process!

I later stitched into two of my watercolour paper pieces with white and copper threads and was honoured that one of them was used for the exhibition promotion poster.

I didn’t really know what to do with my lovely blue pieces but then had an idea – to use most of them (90%) in a collage, which then ended up as a machine stitched patchwork combined with other plain and eco-printed fabric pieces. When I say I used most….I included all the watercolour paper and even the under-paper (used to protect the table) which instead of throwing away I had washed! Everything was carefully machine stitched into and ironed!

The actual patchwork is A2 (420x594mm/16.5×23.4in) in size, so the framed piece is quite large!

 

Fabric boxes with Suzette Smart

We have had the pleasure of Suzette’s tutorage before, this time it was to be boxes. She has a lovely collage style of work often with birds, which, whilst I’m impressed by and admire, isn’t exactly my cup of tea so to speak.

However, I followed all the making instructions (almost) but did the collage as something I would happily have at home.

We were given two pieces of iron-on pelmet Vilene, kindly pre-marked, one slightly smaller than the other. The idea being that two half boxes would be created allowing one to be the base sliding into the other. We created collages of our fabric (brought from home) which we ironed onto the Vilene and then machine stitched over.

Having examined the tutor’s example completed boxes, I noticed that cutting the shape to her design, meant that the stitching would also be cut and the corners would have raw fraying edges….remember, I’m a neat-nic so, ‘fraying’ struggles to get a place in my vocabulary! Uh hmmm….my brain told me if I cut it differently, I would not cut my precious stitching, and the corners would be folded. I did say ‘almost’! I spoke with the tutor and having drawn and then cut my idea out of rough paper she gave her approval and even took a photo! I have placed both templates in my records file for future reference.

At home I completed both half boxes as fully decorated ‘tops’ having decided to make card/paper bottoms for each, using my fiddly template.

 

 

Sea and stones with Rachel Singleton  

I have followed Rachel for several years and was looking forward to meeting her in person. She came armed with so many examples, which I loved seeing in the flesh. I was not disappointed.

We had to bring fabric and potatoes….yes, we were going back to our childhood doing potato printing using just a limited palette of acrylic paints….woohoo! It was fun swapping cut potatoes too, which enabled many stacked stone images to be created that day.

I made mostly single prints rather than immediately printing stacked stones, as I had an idea in my head to create a stack out of more 3D stones. I even printed on some very textured fabric as an experiment….both the tutor and I were pleased that it worked. The texture gave me a good starting point for stitching into the stone which I then padded. Thus far I have two 3D stones….I need to make more….so this project remains a WIP.

 

From sketch to wall with Tansy Hargan

Tansy is another artist I have followed for many years and looked forward to her workshop. She had brought numerous examples of her vibrant collages.

It was a very different workshop in that we had to sketch from real life outside using a ‘viewfinder’ (for want of a description) and a combination of only 3 pens of different colours, types and thicknesses, onto pre-drawn small rectangles on our sheet of paper. We then had to translate our sketches into mini collages, with small scraps of paper.

Setting our mini paper collages aside, we randomly painted larger scraps of fabric with acrylic paint. Finally, using our, now dry, painted fabric and other fabric scraps, we had to produce a larger collage based on our original sketches/mini paper collages, into which we machine and hand stitched.

By the end, although not complete, I had laid out two collages, the smaller (15x15cm) came from one of my original sketches! The larger (23x23cm) was based on the lavender and its shadows. In hindsight, studying the now framed lavender collage against Tansy’s work, I think I could certainly have added even more vibrant coloured stitching….workshops are a learning curve!

 

Finally – Autumn trees with Fiona Robertson

As I have already written more than intended, I will leave you with my final submitted piece (with a hastily cut paper mount), which is still a WIP, and hope that you will follow its progress in another post!

 

 

I’m skidding in on the seat of my pants with this post and almost as a post script….I have just returned from seeing our group’s exhibition which is always very popular and well attended by visitors. We have so many talented members….I will always be in awe and learning all the way.

 

For those familiar with my posts, you’ll know I often think at a tangent, but I was beaten hands down with this one. One of our members completed the altered book challenge by altering hers into a ‘FULL-size’ Kimono. It is stunning. She has backed the pages with iron-on Vilene and even stitched a long plant design onto it. The handbag is made from the original book’s hardcover.

Now why didn’t I think that an altered book could also be altered into 3 dimensions? As I said above, I’m always learning 😁

I hope you’ve learnt something new lately!

Twist 2025, Part 1 new booths of interests

Twist 2025, Part 1 new booths of interests

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Twist 2025 new booths of interest

Some of you have joined me in previous years on the trip to Twist Fibre Festival in Saint-André-Avellin, QC. It’s about an hour and 15 minutes from home, a bit longer with construction detours this year. It is worth the drive in shopping opportunities and usually has lovely scenery. (We had some of the smoke from fires much further west so it was too hazy for the views overlooking the river). Twist is also the largest of the close fiber events to Ottawa.  Please join me as we take a peek, first at the demos and a new booth that I hope will catch your interest too. We will take a look at more of the event in the next post. Don’t forget to meet me at La Toquade restaurant for after shopping Dinner of comfy duck sandwiches.

photo montoge of line up getting into Twist on friday morning (it was very hot) and close ups of the decorations by the sign which is a sheep on a rocket1)Lining up to get into Twist 2025

Demo Hall way,

There are two halls (Gym and Arena), one on either side of a main hall, which also leads to the back of the building, where more vendors in a large tent were located. The hallway is where the demos from various fiber arts groups are located, including the local weaving guild and our neighbour guild across the river. Let’s take a quick peek before heading into the main hall. I was sure I had taken pictures of the knitting guild, and author and one other group at the end of the hall by the tent but I don’t seem to see them. This year we had examples of weaving, spinning, and a bit of felting at the guild table.

OVWSG Demo table table loom on table OVWSG Demo table Suport spindle spinning2.1-2.2) OVWSG Demo table

Gatineau Guild of weavers banner and table display2.3) Guilde des tisserandes de Gatineau; our neighbour guild on the other side of the Ottawa River

lace makeing pillow with hands moving bobins2.4) The Lace makers guild

Association des Artisans de Ceinture Flechee de Lanaudiere banner Association des Artisans de Ceinture Flechee de Lanaudiere table of finger woven bands2.5-2.6) Association des Artisans de Ceinture Flechee de Lanaudiere

While at Twist fiber festival, I spotted a few new booths which caught my attention and I thought you would also find interesting. So I am going to focus on one of the booths today but we will look at the rest of the event hopefully in the next post.

New Vendor has felt

At this point, we had arrived, said hi to the morning demo team, and started looking for booths selling fiber or (Needle) felting supplies.  It was close to opening time, and was still quite busy with a rush of shoppers.  I had to wait to get into the booth. The little I could see from outside had me curious as to what else might be in there. I was sure it would be worth the wait.

glimps of wool felt between people stopping and walking in front of where i was trying to see in3.1)I see wool! Yes, that definitely looks like wool. I wonder which booth this is?

As the crowd parted, I could see the signage “Field & Fleece” and “WoolGrown”.  Behind the sign was a 3 foot tall roll of felt!! As well as bags of fiber (I think I overheard the bags of fleece were mixed rideau-arcott sheep fleeces?)

montage of photos, signage and bags of wool, lamb covers, wool pellets for gardening3.2) When the crowd parted and I could see part of the booth!

rolls of various lenths and widths of horticultural felt.3.3) Precut lengths of felt, some have holes cut out for planting plants, others are solid.

samples in booth of poducts made from this felt, jacket bag, art, and small bags of fiber 3.4) There were examples of wool Felt use; Jacket, purses, art, small batts in bags

There were also small strips of wool rolled up on the table. They were selling them to start seeds in. I looked at them and saw name tags!!!

3" and 4" widths of felt in long strips, they are to plant seeds but i am going to make name tages 3.5) wool strips  for sale in the booth

The strips were being sold as “Seed starting wool strips the eco-friendly evolution of the innovative seed-starting method known as the “Seed Snail.”” The concept seems to be to un-roll the wool strip about 4” x 4’ long, add moistened potting soil mix, roll up the dirt with wool, making something that looks like a less tasty cinnamon roll. Plant the seeds at the top of the roll, so the roots will grow down between the circles of wool. That sounds like an interesting concept but I still see name tags when I look at these rolls. There were a few different widths so I selected a few of the wider (about 4”) and a couple of the cheaper 3-ish” ones.

If you noticed the little square about an inch thick by about 4 inches, I picked up one of those too. I will try it out as a felting surface later.

Since I had finally got to the front of the booth and had already found a small selection of items, I kept looking.

ceramic sheep bole with blacksmith made masonre nails. (to use for mordenting dies)3.6) OH my! What is that?

Not the prins, look in the cup! I was just apologising to Glenn, as we drove here, that I suspected the booths selling blacksmithing items or supplies would again be rather thin.(ok, None. I am sure it’s just an unintentional oversight that will be fixed at some point in the future.) Those rusty items are square-headed nails, and look like blacksmith-made objects! I asked about them and was enlightened that they were the “nails” from a brick wall that had been taken down and she didn’t have the heart to toss them. She was selling them for dyers to mordant their dye baths. I bought a little bundle for Glenn so his day was not just carrying my packages and taking naps on a bench while I shopped or photographed.

Since you have seen the extreme relaxation (napping) demonstrated at various fiber festivals I should not deprive you of another sighting.

Husband sitting on bench sleeping peicefuly while shopping happens behind him4.1) Fibre festivals are a good spot for extreme relaxation.

Mer-Boyfrend self-feling his own abbs Mer-Boyfrend self-feling his own abbs another vew4.2-4.3) The Mer-boyfriend got impatient and started to work on his own abbs. I spent too much time explaining why I was making another mer-person to people stopping to ask what I was doing and how did it work? (Yes, I got another voodoo comment too!)

I filled in at the OVWSG Demo Friday afternoon, as the demo started to pack up, I “rushed” back to buy the roll of felt but they were unfortunately closed…. Drat. Ok almost everyone is faster than I am at the moment.

While we are still in town, we can go enjoy the comfy duck sandwiches at the La Toquade Restaurant. It’s part of the enjoyment of going to twist, and I think about this sandwich for a year between twists, so let’s go see it they are still as memorably delicious as it was last year. (Oh yes it was!!)

on a long rectangle plate, good fries, a small salid with rasbary balsamic vinagret, frenchfrie dipp and the amazing sandwich ingredients listed below photo5)“Club sandwich au confit de canard- Servi dans un pain abricot-raisin-tournesol garni de bacons, oignons, pommes vertes, céleris et mayonnaise maison et un choix de frites ou de salade mesclun” / (Google helped and translated the above to English for me: “Duck Confit Club Sandwich – Served in an apricot-raisin-sunflower bun topped with bacon, onions, green apples, celery and homemade mayonnaise and a choice of fries or mesclun salad”.  the dip for the very tasty french fries was “choix de mayonnaise maison” and the small salid had a fabulouse rasbary baslamic vinigret. Desert was Mousse au chocolat (I think that has to be one of the best types of Moose). If you make it to twist, this may tempt you to stay in town for dinner or a late lunch.

After a delicious dinner, we headed for the highway, through rolling hills and past a very picturesque stream, which I keep meaning to stop and take pictures. Unfortunately, shortly after getting on the highway, we found the highway was closed, so wound up enjoying rock cuttings and farm land while following a very round about detour. (We eventually found out the road was closed for paving.)

pick up truck (licence plate obsured) has bound (tied up) small couch in back.6) I suspect I have been watching/listening to too much US political news on you tube. We saw this in front of us on the detour. Can you guess my first thought as to who must be having a quick getaway visit to Canada?

We did make it home after enjoying parts of Quebec we had not seen before. I spent the rest of the evening reviewing Fridays photos and posting some on the OVWSG Group FB page, I did a bit of investigating on the internet since I regretted not buying one of the rolls of felt.

WoolGrown Company web site: www.woolgrowncompany.com

WoolGrown Company on Face book: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61568471715075

This is a Canadian company, based in southern Ontario. It is a lot closer to drive to Twist (Just over 1 hour east), than to drive west, well past Toronto (Over 6 hours south-west of Ottawa). (Which is why I was trying to get back to twist on Sunday.)

As I heard at twist and saw on their web site, they were looking at ways to diversify their farm production (sheep farming).  On their web site i found links for Wool pellets for mulch, Garden & Horticulture Felt (which was the felt I purchased on Friday, but not the option with holes precut in it for plants) and Sheep Tea Pouches. In their booth, were also examples of; felt art, Felt Jackets, Felt Bags and felt Pots as well as the felt itself.

I tried messaging the company on their Facebook page (but they were likely very busy recovering from day 1 of twist) since I knew going back on Saturday was not an option. I would have to hope to be up and running… er, walking… ok rolling on Sunday.  Glenn said he was up to joining me again, (he was hoping for more Comfy duck), so off we went back to Twist early Sunday morning.

large roll of felt (hordicultural) 3' tall and very long. sitting partly behind sign saying Feild and Fleece7.1) 3 foot tall roll of wool felt!

Ah good they have not sold out, but as I got closer, there was a lot of stock missing. The 10 foot by 1 foot rolls were gone and so were the other sizes I had seen on Friday (Drat). Luckily, Sunday morning at opening was not as busy as Friday, or I heard Saturday had been, so they said they could cut me a piece from the big roll.

mesureing out 4 feet of the lenght from the roll mesureing out 4 feet of the lenght from the roll7.2-7.3) I got 4 feet of the big roll.

I am hopeful I will be able to use this with my picture felting students. I need cut pieces that are a bit bigger than 5”x7” finished picture size.  I want my students to feel the difference 100% wool felt feels, when compared to the cheap part wool, to full acrylic non-woven options for picture felting bases.

close up of some of the pices i purched from this vendor. 8.1) “Horticultural”, as you can see there is some kemp and a bit of VM. Even so, it looks like it will make a good base for picture Needle felting.

Let me show you some of what I wound up with from this vendor, I will show you the rest later. I am looking forward to investigating this wool felt, hopefully soon.

Today (which will be yesterday as you read this) we headed south of Ottawa to Kemptville for a much more intimate fiber festival. I had wonderful chats about felting and fiber and thoroughly enjoyed myself. (Glenn read a book and had another nap, I told you fiber events were extremely relaxing, soon all husbands will want to attend with us, just for the quality napping!!) I would like to show you a couple of interesting displays and booths there too, but let’s finish off visiting Twist next. Don’t forget to save a bit of virtual or actual money for shopping at Almonte Fiberfest on Sept 6th 2025 if you are in the area!!

Silk Hanky Dyeing

Silk Hanky Dyeing

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I have a Flower Workshop coming up in September at a local museum. Just outside Ottawa, at Pinheys Point. If you’re interested, sign up here.

One of the flowers we make uses a silk hanky. I was running low on most of my colours, so it was time for a dye day.

New undyed silk hankies are hard to get wet. There is still a lot of sericin in the hankies. Particularly in the thicker edges. For those who don’t know, silk hankies are usually made from the cocoons of silk moths that hatch. The cocoons are stretched out into rectangles or caps. The cocoons are held together with sericin, it is like a glue that doesn’t easily dissolve in water.

In order to get them properly wet, I use a little soap in the water and let them soak overnight.

 

 

Here is what I had in my box of hankies

I had quite a few of the pink and grey. It’s not a popular pick for anyone in classes. I don’t know why I think it’s really pretty.  There is quite a bit of magenta the purple, and pink. I will over-dye some of those.

For silk dying, you can use either acid dye, like you use for wool or other animal fibres, or MX dye (fibre reactive dye), like you use for cotton or other plant fibres. I use a variation of low water immersion dying with MX dyes.  The site I like for dye information is Paula Burches’ All about Hand Dying

Then I added colour to the new ones.

This one, I added the kelly green first in a few spots, and then a mix of the amethyst and navy to get a blue-purple.

This one folded the hanky by pinching the middle and folding the edges down. I added the yellow where the point is.  and a little at the bottom. I mixed some red to the peach to get a more burnt orange colour and poured it over the rest. I elevated the pointy end a bit so the red-orange wouldn’t flow over it.

For this one again, an orangy red and ice blue.

And lastly, seafoam and plum blossom. I don’t use seafoam often; I always think it will be an icky pale green colour, but as you see, it is not. I need to find my dye chart and hang it up somewhere. I almost forgot to take a picture of this one.

 

I didn’t take pictures of rinsing.  So you don’t get to see where I forgot to put my gloves on and turned my hands blue. The one thing to note with MX dye is that the colours do not exhaust.

Then it was onto the drying racks.

Have you been dying lately?

 

 

Flour Paste Resist Tutorial

Flour Paste Resist Tutorial

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I have been out of town and didn’t have time to write a new post. So I thought I would share a post from my personal blog that is a flour paste tutorial. I apologize for the quality of the photos. I wrote this post in 2011 and my photo taking was not really very good at that point in my life.

Put plastic over your surface on which you will be working. This is very messy so lots of plastic, much wider than your fabric. Pin the top edge of the fabric. You can see it in this photo but I have pinned the edge that is closest to the bucket of flour paste. Mix 1 cup cold water and 1 cup flour in a tub. Use cold water as to make the paste a better consistency. For this silk scarf, I used two recipes of flour paste. I forgot to take a photo before I put flour paste on but you get the idea.

I just pour the paste straight out of the container on to the fabric. Pour along the top edge where you pinned the fabric down. It takes quite a bit so pour generously (more than this photo).

Then use a squeegee or some flat tool to scrape a layer of flour paste over the entire piece of fabric. This process stretches the fabric and is why you only pin the top edge.

Here’s better photo of a generous pour of flour paste.

Once you have your entire surface covered with flour paste, pin the bottom edge and ends of fabric. Make sure you have covered all your edges well. I have this on my “new” print table that I made by stapling a large piece of black felt to the table. Therefore, I can pin right through the plastic and into the felt

If your table is too low, just add four pieces of PVC pipe. Works a charm to prevent your back from bothering when working.

Then let the piece dry for at least 24 hours. I had the fan going on this and it only took 12 hours to dry. It should all be the same color with no translucent looking spots when it is dry. If you look closely, you can see that almost all the pins have been pulled up due to shrinkage. If you don’t pin it down, the entire piece will curl up and be a big mess. Ask me how I know!!

This is how stiff it is when the flour paste is dry. This is an 8mm silk scarf – now turned into a flour paste plank

Here I am holding the end of the scarf. If you haven’t tried this technique, it seems really bizarre.

Next, you need to crack the flour paste. The more you bend, roll or push on the fabric, the more cracking you will get.

These are just a few photos showing the cracked flour paste.

Then you can either use fabric paint or thickened dye. I used Jacquard Textile paint mixed with half water and half paint. Paint over the entire surface making sure that your paint is covering all the flour paste resist.

 

Here’s a peak on the back after painting. This is about how it will look when you wash it out. If that isn’t enough crackling, carefully (you’ll get paint all over yourself) crack it some more and add more paint. Let paint dry for 24 hours. Most textile paints are supposed to be heat set but it doesn’t work to iron this mess. You could try it on the back but both times I’ve tried it, the paint was pretty well set after 24 hours dry time. If you’re using dye, batch like you normally do.

Then fill a bucket with cold water. You don’t want to put the water directly in the sink because you won’t want this flour paste/paint gunk going down your sink. I just rolled the scarf up into a roll and dunked it in the water. It starts loosening almost immediately and you can peel it right off. Just let the gunk settle to the bottom of the bucket.

Can you see the black stuff peeling off in pieces?

Here’s what it looks like.

Once you’ve got as much gunk off as possible, wash with mild detergent in the washing machine. Then iron and you’ll have a lovely crackled effect. I just love the look of these. I have to try some more with different colored paint. Don’t forget to pour the water and flour paste gunk outside. Do not pour it down your sink unless you have a crush on your plumber!

Here’s a few close ups. Can you see the discharged ammonite?

Here’s another look.

I get carried away.

Because I really like this effect. I certainly did not come up with this idea and I got all instructions from Jane Dunnewold’s latest book (this post was written in 2011). If you give it a try, let me know and show us some photos. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.

Is this compost or dye material? Actually it’s both! (Part 1)

Is this compost or dye material? Actually it’s both! (Part 1)

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This particular post has been inspired by some of our regular readers so here’s a quick advance thank you. I really love it when comments lead to further exploration and sharing!

Just a few cautionary words before I go on. I dip in and out of dyeing, definitely a hobbyist and I purely play so my dyeing exploits are experimental. There are lots of great sites out there if you really want to dig deep or if, like me you sometimes just love to watch someone’s process on social media you could check out @thedogwooddyer or @sashaduerr or @joanne_green_art on Instagram. Joanne has recently published a book which I would love to get hold of – it’s all about pigments. I have Sasha Duerr’s book; Natural Palettes and although it focuses on plants grown around California, there’s plenty of botanical commonality going on. It can be hard to believe that it’s Ireland I am talking about – and yes we do have some specimen Californian Redwoods here!

Second cautionary note: please exercise caution when dyeing and keep all of your dyeing equipment separate to your cooking equipment. It’s very important. Also, just because something is natural doesn’t automatically mean it is safe to handle without gloves or a mask. We recently had to burn wood in our pit. I extracted the charcoal and made some lye as an experiment. The pH is such that if it lands on skin it will feel like soap, lovely and soft, but what is happening is that it is dissolving the outer layer of skin! But please don’t be deterred by this. Just exercise caution and common sense and all will be grand!

When I started looking around for something to play with for this blog post I found some fallen branches from one of our cedar trees. I stripped the bark and left it to soak with the intention of throwing some fibres straight into the mix as the high level of tannins in the dye lot would mean that I did not have to heat the mix for it to work. After about a week soaking the mix I made the mistake of stirring it without gloves on. The resin in the mix started irritating my skin (yes, I learned a lesson that day). So it was back to the drawing board to find something safer to extract the dye from. (I haven’t yet learned how to extract the resin from the mix!)

This time I decided to opt for something most of us have at our disposal – compost! Onion skins to be more precise. I have been collecting these for quite some time (we are talking months here – I have been storing them in a cotton bag and they kept perfectly!). I had approximately 110g of skins which I just threw in a huge stock pot (used only for dyeing). I filled it three quarters way with water – not particularly scientific, probably around 6 litres, and put it on a low heat for about 4 hours. During this time I should have checked it (oops, I forgot!) but it was fine. It came to a rolling simmer. By this time it was bed time so I just turned it off and left it overnight to cool and then drained off the skins. There still appears to be colour left in the skins so I popped them into a nylon bag and left them to dry on the washing line – I will try to extract more dye another day.

The colour was a lovely rich colour – like a golden red. So I decided to extract the pigment from 1 litre of the liquid and use the rest for sample dyeing. I will hold on to the dyeing section for my next post as otherwise this will get a little too long and boring for you to read.

 

  • 110g of onion skins ready for dye extraction
  • Overview Yummy colour.
  • Yummy colour against the light
  • Discarded onion skins. I dried these and I will dye with them again before composting them

Let’s start with the pigment making. We are talking natural dyeing here. Extracting the pigment from the dye liquid involves introducing a few ingredients which bind the molecules to themselves and cause them to separate from the liquid. First I am using an acid (alum) (which can also be used as a mordant on fabric and fibre to prepare the surface for dyeing). Then I add an alkaline solution (soda crystals). The two chemicals react and the pigment separates and sinks to the bottom. This can fizz up so make sure there’s plenty of room in the container.  (Remember those great lava making experiments done back in the to encourage kids into science? You get my drift). The liquid is drained off then the remaining pigment is left to drain in a coffee filter. Once drained, the colour can be filtered in distilled water, dried, ground et voila! Pigment.

So, what do you need for this. As we are playing we will work in small quantities:

  • 1 litre of dye liquid (filtered to remove all the plant material)
  • Alum (potassium aluminium sulphate) You will have to check where you can source this as it differs depending on location. Like me, you may need to buy online.
  • Soda crystals (I also use these to clean my washing machine so I can buy them in homeware shops)
  • pot and cooker to heat the liquid
  • 2 Litre jug that can withstand hot liquid.
  • Glass jars (if you are patient, you will fit everything in 1 jar
  • Funnel
  • Coffee filter
  • Spoons (measuring and stirring)
  • weighing scales
  • pestle and mortar
  • boiling water
  • distilled water
  1. Heat the dye liquid but don’t let it boil
  2. Add the alum to a container then add boiling water and stir to dissolve the crystals. This may take a little while so be patient and make sure they are thoroughly dissolved. Quantities? My research has shown that this very much depends on the plant material, but a good starting point is 10% alum to liquid. I used 10 grams here.
  3. Carefully (don’t burn yourself!) pour the dye liquid into the large jug. I tend to do this at the sink. Then add the alum liquid and stir well.
  4. Now dissolve the soda crystals in boiling water. I used 5g here. Once dissolved add this to the big jug and stir. You may notice a fizzing chemical reaction.
  5. Leave the solution to cool and separate. The pigments will sink to the bottom of the jug. The liquid on top should be clear. If it is not, it means that there is some pigment left in it and you could choose to play further with this liquid, once it is drained off. (In other words, repeat the steps outlined above).
  6. Carefully pour off as much of the liquid as you can, without disturbing the pigment.
  7. Set up your glass jar: place the funnel into it and then add the coffee filter to the funnel. Make sure that the funnel is not hitting the bottom of the jar – we want the drained liquid to escape through the bottom
  8. Next slowly pour the wet pigment into the coffee filter. I find if I hurry at this, the filter can disintegrate so I let the filter soak up some of the damp as I am pouring.
  9. Leave this overnight so that the water has mostly drained off and the pigment remains.
  10. Now if you are planning to store your pigment, it is recommended that it is washed at least twice with distilled water and filtered through fresh coffee filters. This is to remove any unwanted mineral salts from the pigment. I am only playing so I did not bother with this step. I know that if this whets your appetite to find out more, you will remember this step.
  11. The next step can be done either when the pigment is completely dry or getting there, scrape it into a mortar (bowl). Once completely dry start grinding using the pestle but be sure to wear a mask for this part as the dust is quite fine.
  12. I store my pigments in tiny glass jars (yes, you guessed 1 litre doesn’t produce a lot but it makes up for it in satisfaction!).  Make sure to label and date.
  13. These can be mixed with a binding agent (note: they are insoluble in water). Here is a good article if you would like to find out more about different binding agents https://inbedwithmonalisa.com/i-pigments-a-little-bit-about-binders-and-making-your-paint/

I have put together a slide show on the process I used.

  • Materials for making pigment
  • Heating up the liquid dye
  • Dissolving the alum – be patient, it takes time
  • Alum and soda crystals are getting to work
  • The pigment has sunk to the bottom of the jug
  • I do like this colour!
  • A bit blurred but here we can see the settled pigment
  • Here’s a photo of the filtration system
  • Slowly pouring the pigment into the coffee filter
  • The filter has soaked up some of the liquid
  • Here you can see the clear liquid draining off the pigment
  • Pigment is still draining
  • Checking on the pigment as it dries
  • Opening the coffee filters before scaping them clean
  • Scraping the pigment into the bowl. This will be left to dry
  • It takes time to grind down the pigment particles, patience is needed.
  • The yield is quite small but it’s still rewarding

This is the basic process. Colours can be altered before making the pigment by introducing an acid or an alkali and if this is of interest to you, it will be worth doing a bit of research.

I have, in a way, put the cart before the horse here, as I am showing you the process of making the pigment before running through the fabulous colours I achieved with this in dye form. But a promise is a promise and I wanted to deliver so I hope on this occasion you can forgive me. The general ‘rule’ that I have found is to use 10% of the volume of the dye as the binder. So for every 1 litre of dye liquid use 10 grams of alum. Then use 5 grams of soda crystals (or similar) and let the substance perform its magic. This is a good starting point. But like all rules a bit of flexibility can be needed so these figures can change and this is where experience comes into play (knowing what adjustment is needed for different plants). Most importantly, your curiousity and willingness to play comes to the fore here. Just give it a go and have lots of fun.

Helene

A little post script before this blog is published:

Since my adventures with onion skins, I decided to experiment with the yellow Chrysanthemums flowers from a lovely bouquet that had seen better days and was destined for the compost heap. I used the same ratio of alum and soda crystals only this time I didn’t hold back some of the dye material for fabrib experimentation and I made up pigment with the full dye bath. Here is the result:

Chrysanths pigment made from the yelow flower head

I may have mentioned this last year, but we have a farmer who grows a number of acres of sunflowers every summer. It’s done for charity and it is open to the public to come along, pick the sunflowers and make a donation to the Hospice Foundation. There’s an honesty box on site. It is a form of Meitheal – part of Irish culture where people help others out. By the time I arrived last week, a lot of the sunflowers had ‘gone over’. That said, after a lot of searching I found some that had yet to open and I was very pleased. So I picked and made my donation. Once home I started cutting off the lower leaves and I cut some of the stems so that they would look better in the vase. Rather than discard the waste I decided to run a little experiment. I slowly brought them to the boil. The smell was not particularly nice so I let everything cool down outside. I found I had a lot of liquid (and plenty of dark green dye), so I reduced down the liquid by heating it up again. (I did this out doors this time!). Then I made my pigment. It’s hard to see from the photos but it is a lovely dark green. I worked with a little over 2 litres of liquid. As you can see, it doesn’t produce a lot of pigment but it is very concentrated:

Sunflower leaf and stem pigment

I have decided to treat myself to Joanne Green’s new book Natural Watercolor Paint Making. I have followed her for a long time on Instagram and love her short videos on how she makes pigment. She had followed this up with a book about the process and I could not be happier. I heard from the book store that it is on its way to me so I’m quite excited about that. Please let me know if you would like me to review it in my next post.

hugs

Helene